What’s The Right Age, To Worry About Aging?

I did originally have a different post in mind for tonight, then the unthinkable happened. I went out for drinks, and didn’t get ID’d. Not once.

Whilst at the bar I was chuffed, no scrabbling in a tiny clutch bag for me. The day after however, I began to wonder. Is this it? Am I starting to look my age? Am I starting to look (shudder at the thought) older?

In some areas of life, especially at the meagre age of 23, looking older can help. When you want to be taken seriously, when you want older acquaintances to realise that yes, you do actually know what you are talking about. However this is little consolation.

I try not to get suckered into (for the most part) what society proscribes as the ideal for women. Glowing tan? Can’t be bothered. Bigger boobs? Not overly fussed. But for some reason, when it comes to aging, I well and truly feel the fear.

Women are told, constantly, that once you hit a certain age – though nobody tells you what age that actually is – that you might as well give up. If you don’t, age will stalk you no matter. People will say that you look good or are doing well, for your age.

Only this week, news broke that a 37 year old actress had been told that she was too old to play the love interest of a 55 year man. Being a whopping 18 years his junior was not enough. If nearly two decades isn’t enough, who knows what is.

I’ve been using various anti-aging moisturises for ages now. Although I could buy any old hydrating lotion, I always opt for those that promise to halt the aging process. I’m not sure when I first started to worry about being older; but it must have been a good few years ago. Apparently I am not the only one worrying about this now. Millennial skin care is fast becoming a thing, with environmental stress and the stresses of modern lifestyles threatening to add an extra decade to our faces. Although the beauty industry sometimes goes way off the mark (anyone remember that foundation that came with a mini-paint roller?) I believe that most of the time they will only invest in creating and marketing a product if they truly believe there is a market. So, I guess getting older is becoming more of a concern for us young things.

Worrying about aging though, is not as simple as it seems. If your mind accidently falls into overdrive, you start worrying about the fact you are worrying about aging. After all, doesn’t worrying increase the likelihood of lines?

This tends to be closely followed by the semi-realisation that in your twenties, all of this is a little bit bonkers. You don’t want to get so into anti-aging you end up with a frozen face or going to extreme lengths a lá Death Becomes Her.

Now I’m getting to the end of this post, I don’t know what to say. We’re all getting older, it’s not nice but we (probably) can’t do anything about it. So I guess no matter what our present age, we should try not to worry about aging – after all, we don’t want to induce more wrinkles.